Russell Crowe axes gaming machines from his club

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe has
won a lengthy battle to ban gambling machines from the Sydney
rugby league club he co-owns in a bid to make it more
family-friendly.

Crowe and fellow owner, millionaire businessman Peter
Holmes a Court, on Wednesday convinced skeptical board members
of the South Sydney Rabbitohs to dump the club's 160 slot
machines, which rake in A$1 million ($862,000) a year.

"We put a proposal for a family-friendly club, an inclusive
club, one that would make the current members of the club, the
people who've been going there for years, happy, but also the
new residents," Holmes a Court told local radio.

The two sought to ban gambling machines, which support
revenues for a wide range of sporting, community and veterans
clubs popular with many Australians, because of concern about
the social impact of gambling.

Crowe, a long-time Rabbitohs fan, bought the cash-strapped
club in 2006 with Holmes a Court, the scion of one of
Australia's wealthiest families.

Together they have injected Hollywood glamour and success
back into one of Australia's oldest rugby league teams,
dressing players in Armani suits off the field and filming the
transformation in a documentary series.

In February Crowe, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to throwing a
telephone handset at a hotel concierge in New York, replaced
scantily-dressed cheerleaders with a drumming band after his
wife Danielle Spencer and other fans complained.